18 ms·

OpenStreepMap 2012 vs. 2022

399 points by curiousfab 4y ago

tezza 4y ago
Scrolling around Broadway I see Avery Fisher Hall is now David Geffen Hall
playingalong 4y ago
A comparison of current Google Maps with current OSM would be interesting too. I bet people would be shocked with how much details there are mapped.
agumonkey 4y ago
Wonderful improvements.
chiubaca 4y ago
plugging a lil data viz i did while a go that plots the latest OSM edits on a map in real time-ish along with a nice chime... https://musical-osm.netlify.app https://musical-osm.netlify.app I'm always surprised by how active it is whenever I visit it. OSM is such an amazing project.
LeoPanthera 4y ago
OpenStreetMap's maps of Disney parks has always immensely impressed me and looking at the comparison I can see why: https://2012.osmz.ru/#16/28.3724/-81.5487 https://2012.osmz.ru/#16/28.3724/-81.5487 The detail was really good even back in 2012.
cjensen 4y ago
OpenStreetMap is very very good. In many ways, I prefer it to Apple and Google. But the 2022 version suffers from a number of issues that Google and Apple are both suffering from recently: a lack of focus on who this map is for. Is this map ornamental? Or is it for driving? Walking? Finding tourist locations? What is it for? One of the obvious changes in OSM between 2012 and 2022 is the addition of building footprints at the cost of removing a lot of street names. At this scale, do footprints really help? Am I planning a walk and need to know the street name where I will turn? When you are close to a destination, yes the footprints help one identify the correct building. But not here. Here's a Google Maps example: if you put Canada's Yukon Territory into frame, does it show you the major roads? No. Does it show you any roads? No. Even if you select "traffic" it doesn't get the hint that you care about driving. It just wants to show you a map of geography. And now an Apple Maps example: put California into frame. Freeways and two-lane roads are shown as thin lines that are nearly invisible. Good luck planning a route with this map! Want to go from Point A to B? It can do it! But want to consider side trips or general routing yourself? Nope. There's still no adequate substitute for a AAA map for driving. I suspect hikers, bikers, and walkers are also poorly served by these non-specialized maps too.
- zaik 4y ago
  Can you point to any street names which have been removed? It's important to remember that OpenStreetMap is primarily a database and the rendered tiles you see on this page are secondary. Data consumers can decide individually whether they want to display a map for cyclists, pedestrians etc. For example, on the official homepage you will also find tiles rendered for cyclists. The important thing is that the data is there and can be used freely by anyone.
  - cjensen 4y ago
    Not removed. Simply not visible at certain zoom levels. The render does a trade-off between what it can show. When they chose to add building footprints, it removed street names
- Reason077 4y ago
  > "a lack of focus on who this map is for. Is this map ornamental? Or is it for driving? Walking? Finding tourist locations? What is it for?" That's the whole point! Think of OpenStreetMap as a global spatial database of raw map data. An infinite variety of specialised maps can be generated from this data. Maps for driving, for hiking, for public transport, for cycling, and much more: it all depends on what renderer is used. https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Rendering https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Rendering
- justnotworthit 4y ago
  Does any navigation software use "simplest route"? As in, fewest turns, stay on main & high quality roads as long as possible; don't take me through strange neighborhoods to save 2 minutes. How this hasn't always been a thing is beyond me.
geenew 4y ago
Does anyone have a quick summary they could offer on how forestry tiles are added? It's clear that they are added in blocks - edges to forest-cover data are at edges of very large (100km?) tiles. I wonder, though, where that information comes from. Public sources GIS, and analysis of public satellite imagery, are two possibilities that come to mind.
- solardev 4y ago
  I am not sure if these are correct/current, but there's a lot of info in the wiki: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/United_States/Public_lands#Guidelines_for_tagging_conservation_areas https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/United_States/Public_lan... https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/US_Forest_Service_Data https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/US_Forest_Service_Data https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/TIGER https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/TIGER
esprehn 4y ago
There appears to be a bug in the 2022 map where it doesn't load tiles during a pan gesture so you can get stuck in an all white zone until you lift your finger off the screen: https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/415779/193375980-798df0cf-33a4-46dc-baa7-907c3a97623c.png https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/415779/193375980-7...
dsq 4y ago
I liked how zooming and panning in one pane was automatically refkected in the other, nice.
ZeroGravitas 4y ago
There should be a master list of "open" alternatives that were derided as never going to be comparable that then took over. Linux, OpenStreetMap, Wikipedia, Audio and Video codecs etc. The world needs more examples of how building a digital commons is a good long term strategy because it's far too easy to take the short term view each time this comes up.
dmd 4y ago
Does something like this exist for OSM vs Google (both current-day)? Edit: I found Geofabrik but their Google api key is invalid I guess.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
hashtag-til 4y ago
I wonder how to go about to collaborate to the OSM ecosystem with code. Does anyone know what are the cool projects within OSM in C/C++? (i.e. not web stuff)
- Doctor_Fegg 4y ago
  Two C++ projects I’m involved in that you might enjoy: https://github.com/systemed/tilemaker https://github.com/systemed/tilemaker https://github.com/Project-OSRM/osrm-backend https://github.com/Project-OSRM/osrm-backend
- westnordost 4y ago
  The most accessible general-purpose map app for end users (Android and iOS) is written in C/C++. This is pretty high on the cool and useful scale: https://organicmaps.app/ https://organicmaps.app/ Both map renderers Tangram-ES and Maplibre-GL - https://github.com/tangrams/tangram-es https://github.com/tangrams/tangram-es and - https://github.com/maplibre/maplibre-gl-native https://github.com/maplibre/maplibre-gl-native are also written in C/C++. Finally, most routing software, such as OSRM or Valhalla are written in C/C++.
  - aembleton 4y ago
    I find mapy.cz to be smoother. Not sure what its written in though as its not open source. Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.seznam.mapy&gl=US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.seznam.mapy... iOS: https://apps.apple.com/cz/app/mapy-cz/id411411020 https://apps.apple.com/cz/app/mapy-cz/id411411020
- apetresc 4y ago
  Here you go: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Category:C%2B%2B https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Category:C%2B%2B
  - hashtag-til 4y ago
    Yep, I got there like 1 minute after asking this FAQ. Thanks.
breck 4y ago
Don't believe what you read in the newspapers, this gives me hope for our world.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- JustSomeNobody 4y ago
  Do believe what has been accurately reported. Also, have hope for the world.
  - MichaelCollins 4y ago
    > Do believe what has been accurately reported. Believe things if you believe them to be true.
- AlexTrask 4y ago
  If this gives you hope you must check the humanitarian openstreetmap team. They are so great https://www.hotosm.org/ https://www.hotosm.org/
laurent123456 4y ago
It's down. What is it supposed to show?
- curiousfab 4y ago
  HN hug of death :( It showed/shows a side-by-side view of Open Street Map 2012 vs. 2022. See https://shtosm.ru/all/verni-mne-moy-2012/ https://shtosm.ru/all/verni-mne-moy-2012/ (or translated: https://shtosm-ru.translate.goog/?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en https://shtosm-ru.translate.goog/?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x... )
  - moffkalast 4y ago
    I still don't quite see what the point is, both pictures seem very similar in terms of detail density, but with slightly different proportions. OSM editing is usually done over satelite imagery these days, so I would imagine the old one must've been very far off in some areas.
    - Zverik 4y ago
      The story of mapping is different for every corner of the world. E.g. in the blog post there's a pic where we mapped the city approximately due to absence of satellite imagery. In this post https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Zverik/diary/399925 https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Zverik/diary/399925 it shows that some regions like Africa were nearly empty ten years ago, before the Humanitarian OSM Team lauched their operations. And in 2012 the focus was mostly on basic map features like roads and rivers, while now we're adding final building outlines.
- betamaxthetape 4y ago
  It is a side-by-side comparison of OSM data from 2012 (left) and the current OSM data. In my local area the difference is massive: the 2012 data has some roads but that's about it, no buildings, house numbers, etc. That's all present on the 2022 version (disclaimer: partly because I spent several months walking around mapping things with the StreetComplete app [1]). For me it isn't down, just taking a very long time (multiple minutes) to load the 2012 data. [1] https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete
cinntaile 4y ago
OSM doesn't have a layer with just satelite images like Google maps has, does there exist any alternative here?
- mpawelski 4y ago
  Mapy.cz (web and app) has option to show satelite images. It's commercial app but it used OSM data. https://en.mapy.cz/ https://en.mapy.cz/
- cinntaile 4y ago
  Very reasonable to downvote a regular question lol.
- flipbrad 4y ago
  Apps can easily layer that stuff over OSM, e.g. I use precisely such an overlay in Vespucci to edit OSM on Android.
- trillic 4y ago
  MapTiler released a ~500 GB high res dataset. Not sure on the licensing but I believe it can be used for free with attribution if self-hosting. https://data.maptiler.com/downloads/dataset/satellite-2021/#0.31/4.5/-3.6 https://data.maptiler.com/downloads/dataset/satellite-2021/#...
  - Symbiote 4y ago
    The download button leads to https://data.maptiler.com/downloads/tileset/satellite-2021/ https://data.maptiler.com/downloads/tileset/satellite-2021/, which says it is $400/month.
  - moffkalast 4y ago
    > The tiles are generated on zoom levels 0-13. That's like 20 m per pixel at its highest zoom, completely useless for most things.
  - jillesvangurp 4y ago
    We have a subscription for MapTiler to do our in app maps; including very nice satellite imagery. This data set is obviously not the good stuff. For reference, I've used ortho4xp to get some satellite imagery based x-plane scenery. I have several hundreds of GB of scenery like that for a few relatively small areas, like my home country the Netherlands, the area around Berlin, and a few more places. That scenery comes in at multiple GB (4-6GB) for just a single rectangle on the map (1 degree latitude by 1 longitude degree, depending on the zoom level. You typically use it at zoom level 17 but you can configure it to go for zoom level 19 near airports, which helps when coming in to land. This stuff is huge. At zoom level 19, you can see quite a bit of detail. It looks great from a few hundred feet up in the simulator. What map tiler offers us looks like it is similar quality to that. I assume they are licensing some satellite data for this. Zoom level 19 resolution for the entire world is likely to be in the peta byte range. 500GB is probably zoom level 15 or 16ish. Still usable but not great if you want to zoom in and see details. Edit. Another point is that zl 19 and better does not come from satellites but from air planes and isn't available everywhere (only in populated areas typically).
Maxburn 4y ago
Left blank white square. Right OSM map. Is this a prank or broken? What year did OSM come out?
- akgerber 4y ago
  The tiles on the left map from 2012 load extremely slowly, presumably due to traffic.
tn890 4y ago
- aaomidi 4y ago
  Maybe don’t blacklist an entire TLD then.
  - tn890 4y ago
    Since it's Russian owned, a lot of malicious actors have found .ru to be a safe heaven, this is more of a security thing than anything.
    - aaomidi 4y ago
      No, it’s security theater.
      - tn890 4y ago
        Since .ru hosts a LOT of malware that's running wild, and I don't particularly care to view anything on .ru, we'll just agree to disagree. Good arguments btw.
        andrepd 4y ago
        You don't particularly care to view anything on .ru, but you're complaining that you can't open a website (which you'd like to view) which is on .ru. What a bizarre thing to say.
        orbital-decay 4y ago
        >and I don't particularly care to view anything on .ru Why complain about it then? Seems like a non-issue.
      - marginalia_nu 4y ago
        I've found that about 80% of the bullshit my search engine crawler finds is on Russian and Chinese IPs (especially the Alibaba Cloud). Not that there isn't legitimate content, but there seems to be very little effort put toward policing the bad as long as it primarily targets a western demographic. This is not by any means a new development.
crimsoneer 4y ago
Honestly, OSM is a damn triumph.
- specialist 4y ago
  Emphatic agreement. I was doing CAD & GIS in the 80s. We certainly foresaw this stuff. Even so, I'm just gobsmacked by the number and quality of all the map & GIS systems.
  - solardev 4y ago
    Was ESRI the industry titan back then too? These days there are a bunch of open-source/open-data initiatives and they're making it MUCH more pleasant to do GIS, thankfully.
    - specialist 4y ago
      To my knowledge, yes. But noob me was only aware of PC-based software. There were probably more options on beefier hardware (workstations, minis, mainframes). > making it MUCH more pleasant to do GIS Totally. Back then, everything was all but bespoke. Almost zero interop. It was a huge hassle. Now GIS can be just a feature set on top of a proper database. Something like PostGIS was inconceivable to me back then.
smcn 4y ago
This is blowing my mind, I had no idea it was as good as it was. I always remembering it being slow, empty, and just not really usable. This is incredible work and I'm sorry that I held such a negative opinion of it for so long!
- mpol 4y ago
  I held the same negative opinion, until about 2018. Then I thought "enough is enough" and started contributing in my area. This in the hope and expectation that other area's will have volunteers working who started out with the same emotion in a somewhat catalysing effect (is that a word?). Now I am quite proud of maintaining shops and bars in my city, at least I think I am the person who updates those the most :)
  - specialist 4y ago
    Is this a manual process, generally? I was wondering if someone(s) consume data feeds from local govts. Stuff like permitting, licensing, change-of-address. I ask because it seems that I'll idly spot a business, while driving around, that I'm sure didn't turn up in a search. (I mostly use Apple Maps.) Then I thought "surely adding new listings could be automated". My next thought was "well, just because it's in the database doesn't mean Apple, Google, Yelp will show it".
    - openmapsguy 4y ago
      Almost everything is manual unless an import for an area is happening. Imports require a bunch of documentation and notifications before the data gets pulled in. The data is typically for building and addresses from the government. Adding together OSM’s rules are stacked against imports, the vocal anti import contingent and specialized software knowledge needed means that few imports happen.
mvexel 4y ago
Some background from the guy who maintains this site at https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Zverik/diary/399925 https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Zverik/diary/399925. There is a script (disclaimer, that I wrote) to set up a couple of docker images so you can create / host something like this yourself: https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/mvexel/diary/399939 https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/mvexel/diary/399939. It requires downloading of a "full history" OSM data file for the region of interest.
benbristow 4y ago
OSM needs some form of gamification adding to it. Google Maps app is great, lets you gain points by adding information & photos & reviews etc. They even send you a free bespoke pair of socks or a badge if you're active enough. So fun to add photos and then see how many views they get (I posted one of a chippy in Scotland (for Americans that's Fish & Chip 'Thick French Fries' shop) which got over 1.4 million views - mental). The location history feature suggests things to contribute which helps too. Would be good to have something similar to make contributing fun.
- BetaDeltaAlpha 4y ago
  Web3 is on it https://hivemapper.com/ https://hivemapper.com/
  - benbristow 4y ago
    $649 for a dashcam probably worth $50 being generous on Wish.com/AliExpress to earn some random crypto. Hmmm.
- jxramos 4y ago
  I concur completely. I was having my young son learn how to use the computer focused on input devices and simple UI interactions by having him annotate buildings and pools in OSM for a few random towns friends live in. I thought he'd very much more enjoy this if it was gamified in some way. He did it, got the hang of the UI, but then it grew tedious so he moved on to something else.
- csteubs 4y ago
  I'm working through similar gamification of map update questions right now, specifically with aerial imaging. We're trying to crowdsource aerial imagery using (for now) passengers in window seats, so the most obvious solution was to provide them free in-flight wifi so that we could upload the images as they're captured as well. They don't record the entire flight, just at certain points based on altitude and tasked coordinates along their filed flight path. Most have appreciated the gesture, but a good amount would prefer airline miles, free in-flight goods, etc. We've looked into chain-based royalties where an image accessed by our customers is paid out to the original photographer, but that's a ways out. Gamification is tricky.
uwagar 4y ago
how do i turn on english names for places that are labeled in local language?
- karussell 4y ago
  It is not possible with raster tiles, but the OSM database might still have the name in English. (You can have a look into vector tiles like from MapTiler or their open source project openmaptiles.org) I just found this example (has nothing to do with openmaptiles as far I can see): https://js.protomaps.com/examples/multi_language.html https://js.protomaps.com/examples/multi_language.html
  - spiekerooger 4y ago
    It actually is possible with raster tiles as well - see e.g. the local chapter work in France ( https://www.openstreetmap.fr https://www.openstreetmap.fr ) or Germany ( https://www.openstreetmap.de https://www.openstreetmap.de ) or the osMap project with 10 different language versions ( https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/osMap https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/osMap ). All those are produced with raster tiles. But you are right as this approach does not scale well in regard to using it for all languages out there. So a vector tile stack is a better approach for just switching languages.
    - karussell 4y ago
      Yes, I meant switching languages is not possible. Of course you can pre-generate your raster in many languages...
- snorthpole 4y ago
  Try https://www.osmap.uk https://www.osmap.uk - OSM with English labels globally.
cavisne 4y ago
It’s interesting to look at the local edits on osm. In my area it’s mostly from Amazon and Lyft, based on proprietary imagery.
- ZeroGravitas 4y ago
  There's a few ways for volunteers to trace proprietary imagery and data into OSM with the permission of the owners of the images. I'm guessing you're talking about private, proprietary imagery?
  - matkoniecz 4y ago
    Yes, some paid mappers use own internal data.
HanClinto 4y ago
For everyone else who is waiting for the page to load, here is a screenshot of the data comparison: https://imgur.com/gallery/iQpmXO9 https://imgur.com/gallery/iQpmXO9
- SideburnsOfDoom 4y ago
  That's hardly the total of "the data comparison" - you can scroll it anywhere. I found my local area, halfway around the world.
eliaspro 4y ago
When looking at these then/now renderings, one needs to take into account, that only very little of the actual data is rendered on those maps. The database contains an incredible level of detail which can be used in completely different contexts and I'd say what's rendered is roughly only 1/10th of the data
escapecharacter 4y ago
With the title in the typo (OpenStreepMap), I was expecting a map of where Meryl Streep was sighted
- w0mbat 4y ago
  You mean typo in the title? This is getting silly, I hope I don't make any mistaks in muy comentt.
lallysingh 4y ago
I prefer OSM to Google Maps when looking at maps. You get better maps with more detail. But, I have to back to GM to find anything with an address. The business database on OSM is poor, and I don't think the system for estimating the location of an address on a street has been particularly good either. They were terrible years ago on GM, so this is part of the evolution. But I can see how OSM will end up better than GM, like Wikipedia over Encyclopedia Brittanica, but it needs a bit more to get there. Btw: the online process to make changes on OSM is wonderful and encouraging.
- SergeAx 4y ago
  On the other hand, when I need to find a nearest trash container in a new location - OSM is always there for me.
- dont__panic 4y ago
  Google is on a warpath of advertising to the detriment of its base products. Nowhere is this more apparent to me than Google Maps, mostly because there isn't a great alternative if I want to find businesses near me. Everyone who can help OSM should. There's no reason OSM can't be a wikipedia-quality product, to the point where close source, advertising-beholden alternatives can't meaningfully compete. Add businesses in your town today! Add business hours if you can! Fix any errors you see. And try to switch to OSM for everything you can. Every little bit helps.
  - aqfamnzc 4y ago
    There are a lot of problems that still need to be solved with OSM to make it on par with GM's overall utility. (I say that as a very active local OSM contributor and data consumer) Reviews, geocoding, political issues within the OSMF, and incomplete address information to name a few. Some of them can be solved by having more active local mappers, but others I don't have an easy answer for. Hopefully these are growing pains, as I desperately want to see OSM succeed.
GeorgeHoneywood 4y ago
A while ago I made something a bit like this, but it is an animation of all the years between 2007 and now. https://maps.honeyfox.uk/ https://maps.honeyfox.uk/ It only works in my town in the UK, so don't try scrolling the map too much.
- rmc 4y ago
  That's awesome

399 points by curiousfab 4y ago

Scrolling around Broadway I see Avery Fisher Hall is now David Geffen Hall

A comparison of current Google Maps with current OSM would be interesting too. I bet people would be shocked with how much details there are mapped.

agumonkey 4y ago

Wonderful improvements.

chiubaca 4y ago

plugging a lil data viz i did while a go that plots the latest OSM edits on a map in real time-ish along with a nice chime... https://musical-osm.netlify.app https://musical-osm.netlify.app I'm always surprised by how active it is whenever I visit it. OSM is such an amazing project.

LeoPanthera 4y ago

OpenStreetMap's maps of Disney parks has always immensely impressed me and looking at the comparison I can see why: https://2012.osmz.ru/#16/28.3724/-81.5487 https://2012.osmz.ru/#16/28.3724/-81.5487 The detail was really good even back in 2012.

cjensen 4y ago

OpenStreetMap is very very good. In many ways, I prefer it to Apple and Google. But the 2022 version suffers from a number of issues that Google and Apple are both suffering from recently: a lack of focus on who this map is for. Is this map ornamental? Or is it for driving? Walking? Finding tourist locations? What is it for? One of the obvious changes in OSM between 2012 and 2022 is the addition of building footprints at the cost of removing a lot of street names. At this scale, do footprints really help? Am I planning a walk and need to know the street name where I will turn? When you are close to a destination, yes the footprints help one identify the correct building. But not here. Here's a Google Maps example: if you put Canada's Yukon Territory into frame, does it show you the major roads? No. Does it show you any roads? No. Even if you select "traffic" it doesn't get the hint that you care about driving. It just wants to show you a map of geography. And now an Apple Maps example: put California into frame. Freeways and two-lane roads are shown as thin lines that are nearly invisible. Good luck planning a route with this map! Want to go from Point A to B? It can do it! But want to consider side trips or general routing yourself? Nope. There's still no adequate substitute for a AAA map for driving. I suspect hikers, bikers, and walkers are also poorly served by these non-specialized maps too.

zaik 4y ago
Can you point to any street names which have been removed? It's important to remember that OpenStreetMap is primarily a database and the rendered tiles you see on this page are secondary. Data consumers can decide individually whether they want to display a map for cyclists, pedestrians etc. For example, on the official homepage you will also find tiles rendered for cyclists. The important thing is that the data is there and can be used freely by anyone.
- cjensen 4y ago
  Not removed. Simply not visible at certain zoom levels. The render does a trade-off between what it can show. When they chose to add building footprints, it removed street names
Reason077 4y ago
> "a lack of focus on who this map is for. Is this map ornamental? Or is it for driving? Walking? Finding tourist locations? What is it for?" That's the whole point! Think of OpenStreetMap as a global spatial database of raw map data. An infinite variety of specialised maps can be generated from this data. Maps for driving, for hiking, for public transport, for cycling, and much more: it all depends on what renderer is used. https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Rendering https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Rendering
justnotworthit 4y ago
Does any navigation software use "simplest route"? As in, fewest turns, stay on main & high quality roads as long as possible; don't take me through strange neighborhoods to save 2 minutes. How this hasn't always been a thing is beyond me.

geenew 4y ago

Does anyone have a quick summary they could offer on how forestry tiles are added? It's clear that they are added in blocks - edges to forest-cover data are at edges of very large (100km?) tiles. I wonder, though, where that information comes from. Public sources GIS, and analysis of public satellite imagery, are two possibilities that come to mind.

solardev 4y ago
I am not sure if these are correct/current, but there's a lot of info in the wiki: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/United_States/Public_lands#Guidelines_for_tagging_conservation_areas https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/United_States/Public_lan... https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/US_Forest_Service_Data https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/US_Forest_Service_Data https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/TIGER https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/TIGER

esprehn 4y ago

There appears to be a bug in the 2022 map where it doesn't load tiles during a pan gesture so you can get stuck in an all white zone until you lift your finger off the screen: https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/415779/193375980-798df0cf-33a4-46dc-baa7-907c3a97623c.png https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/415779/193375980-7...

dsq 4y ago

I liked how zooming and panning in one pane was automatically refkected in the other, nice.

ZeroGravitas 4y ago

There should be a master list of "open" alternatives that were derided as never going to be comparable that then took over. Linux, OpenStreetMap, Wikipedia, Audio and Video codecs etc. The world needs more examples of how building a digital commons is a good long term strategy because it's far too easy to take the short term view each time this comes up.

dmd 4y ago

Does something like this exist for OSM vs Google (both current-day)? Edit: I found Geofabrik but their Google api key is invalid I guess.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

hashtag-til 4y ago

I wonder how to go about to collaborate to the OSM ecosystem with code. Does anyone know what are the cool projects within OSM in C/C++? (i.e. not web stuff)

Doctor_Fegg 4y ago
Two C++ projects I’m involved in that you might enjoy: https://github.com/systemed/tilemaker https://github.com/systemed/tilemaker https://github.com/Project-OSRM/osrm-backend https://github.com/Project-OSRM/osrm-backend
westnordost 4y ago
The most accessible general-purpose map app for end users (Android and iOS) is written in C/C++. This is pretty high on the cool and useful scale: https://organicmaps.app/ https://organicmaps.app/ Both map renderers Tangram-ES and Maplibre-GL - https://github.com/tangrams/tangram-es https://github.com/tangrams/tangram-es and - https://github.com/maplibre/maplibre-gl-native https://github.com/maplibre/maplibre-gl-native are also written in C/C++. Finally, most routing software, such as OSRM or Valhalla are written in C/C++.
- aembleton 4y ago
  I find mapy.cz to be smoother. Not sure what its written in though as its not open source. Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.seznam.mapy&gl=US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.seznam.mapy... iOS: https://apps.apple.com/cz/app/mapy-cz/id411411020 https://apps.apple.com/cz/app/mapy-cz/id411411020
apetresc 4y ago
Here you go: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Category:C%2B%2B https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Category:C%2B%2B
- hashtag-til 4y ago
  Yep, I got there like 1 minute after asking this FAQ. Thanks.

breck 4y ago

Don't believe what you read in the newspapers, this gives me hope for our world.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
JustSomeNobody 4y ago
Do believe what has been accurately reported. Also, have hope for the world.
- MichaelCollins 4y ago
  > Do believe what has been accurately reported. Believe things if you believe them to be true.
AlexTrask 4y ago
If this gives you hope you must check the humanitarian openstreetmap team. They are so great https://www.hotosm.org/ https://www.hotosm.org/

laurent123456 4y ago

It's down. What is it supposed to show?

curiousfab 4y ago
HN hug of death :( It showed/shows a side-by-side view of Open Street Map 2012 vs. 2022. See https://shtosm.ru/all/verni-mne-moy-2012/ https://shtosm.ru/all/verni-mne-moy-2012/ (or translated: https://shtosm-ru.translate.goog/?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en https://shtosm-ru.translate.goog/?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x... )
- moffkalast 4y ago
  I still don't quite see what the point is, both pictures seem very similar in terms of detail density, but with slightly different proportions. OSM editing is usually done over satelite imagery these days, so I would imagine the old one must've been very far off in some areas.
  - Zverik 4y ago
    The story of mapping is different for every corner of the world. E.g. in the blog post there's a pic where we mapped the city approximately due to absence of satellite imagery. In this post https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Zverik/diary/399925 https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Zverik/diary/399925 it shows that some regions like Africa were nearly empty ten years ago, before the Humanitarian OSM Team lauched their operations. And in 2012 the focus was mostly on basic map features like roads and rivers, while now we're adding final building outlines.
betamaxthetape 4y ago
It is a side-by-side comparison of OSM data from 2012 (left) and the current OSM data. In my local area the difference is massive: the 2012 data has some roads but that's about it, no buildings, house numbers, etc. That's all present on the 2022 version (disclaimer: partly because I spent several months walking around mapping things with the StreetComplete app [1]). For me it isn't down, just taking a very long time (multiple minutes) to load the 2012 data. [1] https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete

cinntaile 4y ago

OSM doesn't have a layer with just satelite images like Google maps has, does there exist any alternative here?

mpawelski 4y ago
Mapy.cz (web and app) has option to show satelite images. It's commercial app but it used OSM data. https://en.mapy.cz/ https://en.mapy.cz/
cinntaile 4y ago
Very reasonable to downvote a regular question lol.
flipbrad 4y ago
Apps can easily layer that stuff over OSM, e.g. I use precisely such an overlay in Vespucci to edit OSM on Android.
trillic 4y ago
MapTiler released a ~500 GB high res dataset. Not sure on the licensing but I believe it can be used for free with attribution if self-hosting. https://data.maptiler.com/downloads/dataset/satellite-2021/#0.31/4.5/-3.6 https://data.maptiler.com/downloads/dataset/satellite-2021/#...
- Symbiote 4y ago
  The download button leads to https://data.maptiler.com/downloads/tileset/satellite-2021/ https://data.maptiler.com/downloads/tileset/satellite-2021/, which says it is $400/month.
- moffkalast 4y ago
  > The tiles are generated on zoom levels 0-13. That's like 20 m per pixel at its highest zoom, completely useless for most things.
- jillesvangurp 4y ago
  We have a subscription for MapTiler to do our in app maps; including very nice satellite imagery. This data set is obviously not the good stuff. For reference, I've used ortho4xp to get some satellite imagery based x-plane scenery. I have several hundreds of GB of scenery like that for a few relatively small areas, like my home country the Netherlands, the area around Berlin, and a few more places. That scenery comes in at multiple GB (4-6GB) for just a single rectangle on the map (1 degree latitude by 1 longitude degree, depending on the zoom level. You typically use it at zoom level 17 but you can configure it to go for zoom level 19 near airports, which helps when coming in to land. This stuff is huge. At zoom level 19, you can see quite a bit of detail. It looks great from a few hundred feet up in the simulator. What map tiler offers us looks like it is similar quality to that. I assume they are licensing some satellite data for this. Zoom level 19 resolution for the entire world is likely to be in the peta byte range. 500GB is probably zoom level 15 or 16ish. Still usable but not great if you want to zoom in and see details. Edit. Another point is that zl 19 and better does not come from satellites but from air planes and isn't available everywhere (only in populated areas typically).

Maxburn 4y ago

Left blank white square. Right OSM map. Is this a prank or broken? What year did OSM come out?

akgerber 4y ago
The tiles on the left map from 2012 load extremely slowly, presumably due to traffic.

tn890 4y ago

aaomidi 4y ago
Maybe don’t blacklist an entire TLD then.
- tn890 4y ago
  Since it's Russian owned, a lot of malicious actors have found .ru to be a safe heaven, this is more of a security thing than anything.
  - aaomidi 4y ago
    No, it’s security theater.
    - tn890 4y ago
      Since .ru hosts a LOT of malware that's running wild, and I don't particularly care to view anything on .ru, we'll just agree to disagree. Good arguments btw.
      - andrepd 4y ago
        You don't particularly care to view anything on .ru, but you're complaining that you can't open a website (which you'd like to view) which is on .ru. What a bizarre thing to say.
      - orbital-decay 4y ago
        >and I don't particularly care to view anything on .ru Why complain about it then? Seems like a non-issue.
    - marginalia_nu 4y ago
      I've found that about 80% of the bullshit my search engine crawler finds is on Russian and Chinese IPs (especially the Alibaba Cloud). Not that there isn't legitimate content, but there seems to be very little effort put toward policing the bad as long as it primarily targets a western demographic. This is not by any means a new development.

crimsoneer 4y ago

Honestly, OSM is a damn triumph.

specialist 4y ago
Emphatic agreement. I was doing CAD & GIS in the 80s. We certainly foresaw this stuff. Even so, I'm just gobsmacked by the number and quality of all the map & GIS systems.
- solardev 4y ago
  Was ESRI the industry titan back then too? These days there are a bunch of open-source/open-data initiatives and they're making it MUCH more pleasant to do GIS, thankfully.
  - specialist 4y ago
    To my knowledge, yes. But noob me was only aware of PC-based software. There were probably more options on beefier hardware (workstations, minis, mainframes). > making it MUCH more pleasant to do GIS Totally. Back then, everything was all but bespoke. Almost zero interop. It was a huge hassle. Now GIS can be just a feature set on top of a proper database. Something like PostGIS was inconceivable to me back then.

smcn 4y ago

This is blowing my mind, I had no idea it was as good as it was. I always remembering it being slow, empty, and just not really usable. This is incredible work and I'm sorry that I held such a negative opinion of it for so long!

mpol 4y ago
I held the same negative opinion, until about 2018. Then I thought "enough is enough" and started contributing in my area. This in the hope and expectation that other area's will have volunteers working who started out with the same emotion in a somewhat catalysing effect (is that a word?). Now I am quite proud of maintaining shops and bars in my city, at least I think I am the person who updates those the most :)
- specialist 4y ago
  Is this a manual process, generally? I was wondering if someone(s) consume data feeds from local govts. Stuff like permitting, licensing, change-of-address. I ask because it seems that I'll idly spot a business, while driving around, that I'm sure didn't turn up in a search. (I mostly use Apple Maps.) Then I thought "surely adding new listings could be automated". My next thought was "well, just because it's in the database doesn't mean Apple, Google, Yelp will show it".
  - openmapsguy 4y ago
    Almost everything is manual unless an import for an area is happening. Imports require a bunch of documentation and notifications before the data gets pulled in. The data is typically for building and addresses from the government. Adding together OSM’s rules are stacked against imports, the vocal anti import contingent and specialized software knowledge needed means that few imports happen.

mvexel 4y ago

Some background from the guy who maintains this site at https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Zverik/diary/399925 https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Zverik/diary/399925. There is a script (disclaimer, that I wrote) to set up a couple of docker images so you can create / host something like this yourself: https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/mvexel/diary/399939 https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/mvexel/diary/399939. It requires downloading of a "full history" OSM data file for the region of interest.

benbristow 4y ago

OSM needs some form of gamification adding to it. Google Maps app is great, lets you gain points by adding information & photos & reviews etc. They even send you a free bespoke pair of socks or a badge if you're active enough. So fun to add photos and then see how many views they get (I posted one of a chippy in Scotland (for Americans that's Fish & Chip 'Thick French Fries' shop) which got over 1.4 million views - mental). The location history feature suggests things to contribute which helps too. Would be good to have something similar to make contributing fun.

BetaDeltaAlpha 4y ago
Web3 is on it https://hivemapper.com/ https://hivemapper.com/
- benbristow 4y ago
  $649 for a dashcam probably worth $50 being generous on Wish.com/AliExpress to earn some random crypto. Hmmm.
jxramos 4y ago
I concur completely. I was having my young son learn how to use the computer focused on input devices and simple UI interactions by having him annotate buildings and pools in OSM for a few random towns friends live in. I thought he'd very much more enjoy this if it was gamified in some way. He did it, got the hang of the UI, but then it grew tedious so he moved on to something else.
csteubs 4y ago
I'm working through similar gamification of map update questions right now, specifically with aerial imaging. We're trying to crowdsource aerial imagery using (for now) passengers in window seats, so the most obvious solution was to provide them free in-flight wifi so that we could upload the images as they're captured as well. They don't record the entire flight, just at certain points based on altitude and tasked coordinates along their filed flight path. Most have appreciated the gesture, but a good amount would prefer airline miles, free in-flight goods, etc. We've looked into chain-based royalties where an image accessed by our customers is paid out to the original photographer, but that's a ways out. Gamification is tricky.

uwagar 4y ago

how do i turn on english names for places that are labeled in local language?

karussell 4y ago
It is not possible with raster tiles, but the OSM database might still have the name in English. (You can have a look into vector tiles like from MapTiler or their open source project openmaptiles.org) I just found this example (has nothing to do with openmaptiles as far I can see): https://js.protomaps.com/examples/multi_language.html https://js.protomaps.com/examples/multi_language.html
- spiekerooger 4y ago
  It actually is possible with raster tiles as well - see e.g. the local chapter work in France ( https://www.openstreetmap.fr https://www.openstreetmap.fr ) or Germany ( https://www.openstreetmap.de https://www.openstreetmap.de ) or the osMap project with 10 different language versions ( https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/osMap https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/osMap ). All those are produced with raster tiles. But you are right as this approach does not scale well in regard to using it for all languages out there. So a vector tile stack is a better approach for just switching languages.
  - karussell 4y ago
    Yes, I meant switching languages is not possible. Of course you can pre-generate your raster in many languages...
snorthpole 4y ago
Try https://www.osmap.uk https://www.osmap.uk - OSM with English labels globally.

cavisne 4y ago

It’s interesting to look at the local edits on osm. In my area it’s mostly from Amazon and Lyft, based on proprietary imagery.

ZeroGravitas 4y ago
There's a few ways for volunteers to trace proprietary imagery and data into OSM with the permission of the owners of the images. I'm guessing you're talking about private, proprietary imagery?
- matkoniecz 4y ago
  Yes, some paid mappers use own internal data.

HanClinto 4y ago

For everyone else who is waiting for the page to load, here is a screenshot of the data comparison: https://imgur.com/gallery/iQpmXO9 https://imgur.com/gallery/iQpmXO9

SideburnsOfDoom 4y ago
That's hardly the total of "the data comparison" - you can scroll it anywhere. I found my local area, halfway around the world.

eliaspro 4y ago

When looking at these then/now renderings, one needs to take into account, that only very little of the actual data is rendered on those maps. The database contains an incredible level of detail which can be used in completely different contexts and I'd say what's rendered is roughly only 1/10th of the data

escapecharacter 4y ago

With the title in the typo (OpenStreepMap), I was expecting a map of where Meryl Streep was sighted

w0mbat 4y ago
You mean typo in the title? This is getting silly, I hope I don't make any mistaks in muy comentt.

lallysingh 4y ago

I prefer OSM to Google Maps when looking at maps. You get better maps with more detail. But, I have to back to GM to find anything with an address. The business database on OSM is poor, and I don't think the system for estimating the location of an address on a street has been particularly good either. They were terrible years ago on GM, so this is part of the evolution. But I can see how OSM will end up better than GM, like Wikipedia over Encyclopedia Brittanica, but it needs a bit more to get there. Btw: the online process to make changes on OSM is wonderful and encouraging.

SergeAx 4y ago
On the other hand, when I need to find a nearest trash container in a new location - OSM is always there for me.
dont__panic 4y ago
Google is on a warpath of advertising to the detriment of its base products. Nowhere is this more apparent to me than Google Maps, mostly because there isn't a great alternative if I want to find businesses near me. Everyone who can help OSM should. There's no reason OSM can't be a wikipedia-quality product, to the point where close source, advertising-beholden alternatives can't meaningfully compete. Add businesses in your town today! Add business hours if you can! Fix any errors you see. And try to switch to OSM for everything you can. Every little bit helps.
- aqfamnzc 4y ago
  There are a lot of problems that still need to be solved with OSM to make it on par with GM's overall utility. (I say that as a very active local OSM contributor and data consumer) Reviews, geocoding, political issues within the OSMF, and incomplete address information to name a few. Some of them can be solved by having more active local mappers, but others I don't have an easy answer for. Hopefully these are growing pains, as I desperately want to see OSM succeed.

GeorgeHoneywood 4y ago

A while ago I made something a bit like this, but it is an animation of all the years between 2007 and now. https://maps.honeyfox.uk/ https://maps.honeyfox.uk/ It only works in my town in the UK, so don't try scrolling the map too much.

rmc 4y ago
That's awesome